Experts

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Russia & European security

Since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and intervention in Eastern Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has posed increasing challenges to Europe, both domestically and in external policy. Through its cultivation of right wing populist movements in Europe, its use of disinformation campaigns, its interference in the 2016 presidential election in the US and its murky connections to the Trump administration, the Kremlin has sought to exploit and increase divisions within the EU and NATO. But the West also has to work with Russia on some international problems, including the future of Syria, and preventing nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea. Europe needs to find the right balance between dialogue, defence and deterrence, while managing a troubled transatlantic relationship.